There is a concept I think about a lot from time to time. I didn't realize it, but it has a name.
First, the name:
Intensificatory reduplication.
It's a aspect in the English language where you repeat something for emphasis.
The example I read was "I really, really don't want to".
My examples are lyrics from two songs I like.
The first one is Sunday, Bloody Sunday by U2.
"It puts my back up, puts my back up against a wall".
The other song, But It's Alright by JJ Jackson does it twice, "Surely, surely gonna pay", "Got to, got to reap what you sow."
And tonight, I was researching synonyms for unrelated reasons, and the concept of reduplication showed up in my browser. And my little pinball machine brain lit up and started dinging. It was marvelous.
There are other forms of reduplication and they are equally marvelous - the schm- reduplication: fancy-schmancy.
The constrastive focus reduplication. Do I like working from my home office? No, I prefer an office office.
And different languages have different kinds.
The thing is, it's a linguistics concept, and I always wanted to study linguistics in college, but the damn class never meshed with my sched. Some day, I want to go take that class.
And not just audit, either. I want to take it take it.
Comments
They never came up in my linguistics classes, but I'd still recommend linguistics. We learned different terms for letters--plosives, glossal stops, liquids, and so on--and it was fun sounding them out.